DroneBase, the largest global drone operations company, today announced
it has raised $12 million in Series B funding to expand its drone
operations services for enterprises. Union Square Ventures (USV) and
Upfront Ventures co-led the round alongside DJI and new investors Hearst
Ventures and Pritzker Group. This brings DroneBase’s total funding to
more than $17 million.

“DroneBase has addressed two key challenges in the industry by providing
reliable, affordable and scalable drone services for enterprises across
industries, while offering opportunities for pilots of all skill sets
with purposeful reasons to fly their drones,” said Jan Gasparic, Head of
Enterprise Partnerships, DJI. “This round marks DJI’s third investment
in DroneBase through SkyFund, which demonstrates our confidence in their
continued success in an industry that, while growing at a rapid pace, is
just at the beginning of realizing its full potential.”

DroneBase recently completed over 100,000 commercial drone missions for
enterprise clients across various industries such as real estate,
insurance, telecommunications, construction, and media. The company has
the largest, most engaged and skilled drone pilot network, having grown
it 10x year over year for the past two years. Through this network,
DroneBase is able to turn around a client mission in less than 48 hours
anywhere in the United States, since its pilots are active in all 50
states and over 60 countries.

“We want DroneBase to have the best customer experience for both our
enterprise clients and pilots, and that means automating the operations
layer so both parties can focus on what they do best,” said Dan Burton,
Co-Founder and CEO, DroneBase. “We’re advancing how drones can make
enterprises more efficient, and this new funding will allow us to make
AirCraft Pro a reality.”

With this funding, DroneBase will focus on expanding its enterprise
offering to include AirCraft Pro. DroneBase’s AirCraft technology is the
first augmented reality (AR) technology for both recreational and
commercial drone use. Since AirCraft’s launch on the DroneBase Pilot
App, drone pilots have placed hundreds of thousands of blocks throughout
the world. Available later this year, AirCraft Pro will enable companies
from insurance to construction and real estate to telecom to use the AR
technology for a wide variety of use cases.

“Today Los Angeles is the epicenter for innovation in aerial technology,
and DroneBase is the leader in acquiring aerial imagery and data,” said
Greg Bettinelli, Partner at Upfront Ventures and DroneBase Board Member.
“We believe DroneBase will own the operations and infrastructure of the
drone ecosystem and be able to serve clients across every industry as a
result.”

DroneBase will also innovate its platform and API to become even more
relevant, data-rich, and valuable for all of its clients. The DroneBase
API allows enterprise companies to work with DroneBase at scale. It
offers customers a way to seamlessly send 100’s or 1000’s of orders
directly into DroneBase’s workflow to maximize efficiency, lower costs,
and decrease turnaround time. Through a recent integration with AirMap,
the DroneBase API also provides instant airspace clearance in U.S.
controlled airspace near select FAA facilities, allowing for more
flights for more customers.

DroneBase recently launched the DroneBase Pilot App on Android in the
Google Play store, enabling opportunities for more pilots to take part
in missions. The proprietary Pilot Dashboard shows pilots the number of
missions flown, amount earned to date, and active missions. By being
available on Android, DroneBase looks to broaden the reach of their
global pilot network.

About DroneBase

DroneBase is the most scalable, affordable, and easy-to-integrate
solution for enterprises to acquire drone data from the world’s largest
pilot network. Based in Los Angeles, the company is the trusted, go-to
platform for aerial images and data for worldwide enterprise commercial
clients across multiple industries such as residential and commercial
real estate, insurance, telecommunications, construction, and media. The
company was incubated by Y Combinator and has raised more than $17
million in funding from Union Square Ventures, Upfront Ventures, Hearst
Ventures, Pritzker Group, Accel Partners, SV Angel and DJI.

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